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joeburrowsblog-blog · 7 years

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CASE STUDY: “To What Extent Do Newspaper Headlines Play a Role in Manipulating Public Opinion?”

Abstract

Newspapers are one of the nations oldest sources of information, yet laced with contrasting ideas between companies. Headlines are the strongest tool used by these papers. For years, the public have used newspapers as a way to receive updates on sport, television and politics, amongst others, not always considering the manipulative viewpoint embedded within. This report will address the strategies and effectivity of newspapers over the nation which try to warp the opinions of the public for social or political purposes. Throughout, there will be data taken from interviews, surveys and critical discourse analysis to show the extent of this influence.

To What Extent Do Newspaper Headlines Play a Role in Manipulating Public Opinion?

Who is responsible for giving us our views and opinions? From who do we receive our perceptions of society? The study of manipulation in the news is somewhat neglected in the practices of sociology, however it is grasped by a number of media theorists to an extent. This report critically examines material which manipulates public opinion and suffocates free thinking. Material such as this seeks to ‘promote the world view of the journalist’ and therefore ‘increase the probability that a journalist’s story is published’ (Baron, 2006:1) in order to benefit the company. Newsroom ethnographies have often discovered a political and social influence on the reader which is often due to economic reasoning. Many aspects of this will be explored in the report using examples from various primary and secondary resources.

Literature Review

In a review of three academics similar fields of study, I have reviewed their texts which explore the role of news and media manipulation on society. The research undertaken by these writers demonstrate an analogous style of analysis which accompanies my findings on a theoretical level. Firstly, Nani Tiono’s text of an Analysis on Syntactic and Semantic Factors Found in Newspaper Headlines considers the ambiguity and disillusioned structure of newspaper headlines to draw an audience in through curiosity. The text mainly focuses on the language projected by newspapers using the examples of The Jakarta Post and Indonesian Daily News. Tiono outlines how their opinion is exposed throughout their semantic choices, ‘the linguistic structures lead to different versions and views of the same event in different newspapers’ (Tiono, 2003:50), suggesting that stories will be manipulated between each company for an influential purpose.

Tiono considers five functions which are served in newspaper articles such as information, expressive, phatic, aesthetic and most importantly, directive functions. She claims the ‘orientation of directive function is toward the listener/reader’ (Tiono, 2003:51) suggesting that if used strategically, their message can be projected onto the audience in their use of language. The text uses influence from mass culture theories through the way that the writer sees newspaper companies as manipulative outlets, seeking to restore traditional beliefs. From her research, the effects of language in news is shown to be critical to the opinions of the public. Shockingly, this can even resort to physical negative outbursts where ‘it is not rare that people are provoked to act or to respond based on the reporter’s point of view or just based on one’s ideas’ (Tiono, 2003:51) giving that this is a crucial area of research.

Secondly, the text from Noam Chomsky holds relevance to my field of study as he considers the role of manipulation in the 1980’s. His text discusses propaganda in America and its role in manipulating political opinion within the public. He addresses the issue of power surrounding mainstream media where institutions use their reporting styles to distract the reader from real, pressing events. It is noted in the text ‘the major media and other ideological institutions will generally reflect the perspectives and interests of established power’ (Chomsky, 1989:21) demonstrating a problematic view of reporting standards. This is written in a Marxist perspective, opposing the restrictions given by networks and furthermore seeking a rise in informative content.

Ultimately, Chomsky’s ideas in this text revolve around a false state of democracy and how these institutions stand in the way of progress. Hegemonic structures are abundant in the media industry which means political influence will be used anywhere with money involved, and businesses said to be ‘framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly’ (Chomsky, 1989:21). By obscuring the headlines from genuine world events, companies can use their power to give another perhaps less important story more coverage for their social or political favour. Chomsky further describes the tendencies which follow media influence such as ‘progressive elimination of unions and other popular organizations that interfere with private power’, and ‘an electoral system that is increasingly stage-managed as a public relations exercise’ (Chomsky, 1989: 37) which demonstrate the legitimate effects that media companies impose on communities.

Thirdly, I researched the studies of moral panic and the way in which it is subjected upon society to the benefits of the elite class. The techniques are explored by Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda where they claim it ‘began as far back as existence of organized society itself’ (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009:89) suggesting that this style of reporting is embedded into the media and throughout society. The writers use specific examples of moral panic as a tool, these include 9/11, flag burnings and school shootings; from their reporting, we can understand the incentives for creating moral panic and how they function to obscure the truth.

Goode & Ben-Yehuda consider a field of research which is essential in understanding the outcome of my research question. The act of using fear as a tool for publishers is omnipresent throughout society and is considered to be normal and doxa for many members of the public. The writers claim ‘to the extent they can, [companies] “engineer” moral panics to generate news and appeal to the concerns of their audience’ (Goode & Ben-Yehuda, 2009:90) suggesting there is a capital element to this in order to sell to a nation in fear. The text often implies the relevance of theories from Katz and Lazarsfeld regarding the hypodermic needle. This theory states that the media uses its power to inject ideas into the heads of readers passively through their material. Moral panic driven by the hypodermic needle is perhaps most effective in gaining a reaction from their audience, yet its main purpose is to distort facts and gain capital.

Methodology

In order to explore this question to the closest detail, I have chosen a methodology of critical discourse analysis, using primary research to reinforce my findings. The contextual analysis will be based on several newspaper articles including their language choices, and applying this to theoretical frameworks. Furthermore, I will consider the economic, political and social factors surrounding news outlets which give reasoning for this form of delivery to the public. This kind of research is essential in determining the cultural effect that mass media corporations have on societal values and public opinion. In terms of newspapers considered in this report, there will be several articles taken from different companies which effectively illustrate the role that they have in manipulating ideals. These will be ranging from mass-produced, conservative run papers such as The Sun, to hyper local outlets such as Driffield Post.

Using primary research to investigate my question in a more visual light, I have conducted polls and interviews in order to find the publics opinion on these headlines. These are in response to several newspaper headlines which had been either deemed controversial by many reporters or considered influential to the opinion of the reader. In performing research through polls, there is the ability to gain a wide variety of views and determine the dominant ideas towards mass media from the public. Moreover, interviews will assist this data through expanding on some of these ideologies in closer detail and gaining a more personal perspective on the subject. Through a range of results in polls and interviews, we can understand the way the public receive this and get an accurate portrayal of the trust invested into mass businesses.

Analysis

From interviewing members of the public I was able to analyse the views that they possess and their general attitudes towards mass produced news. It was noticeable that the headlines given from hyper local, impartial papers gave a less cynical response than the mainstream alternative. My questions queried their initial thoughts and opinions towards the papers' The Sun, Driffield Post and Daily Mail headlines; this was without revealing the source to prevent a bias reaction. Besides the hyper local outlet, Driffield Post, these papers have a history of bigoted and far right wing reporting style which is frequently expressed through their misleading headlines. Many liberal writers and fame icons have stood against the reporting styles of this paper, noticeably Stephen Fry, where he quotes 'how can one not be fond of something that the Daily Mail despises?' (Fry, 1992:426). Largely, their controversial headlines are used with the intention to cause political debate (usually in the favour of the Conservative government) or as bait to draw more readers their way.

In some respects, the interviewing process is seen as a 'fundamental act' of modern journalistic practice (Schudson, 1994:565). By questioning a set of interviewees on controversial subject matters, the data collected can demonstrate the impact that these headlines have on the public. I showed the interviewees the following headlines:

One in Five Brit Muslims' Sympathy for Jihads (The Sun)

Police Amongst Fittest In The UK (Driffield Post)

Miliband Will Bring Back More Uncontrolled Migration (Daily Mail)

They all answered in an informed and fairly liberal perspective expressing distrust in some of the papers - mainly The Sun's dramatic headline regarding Muslims. Fortunately this established a lack of bigotry and independent thought from the succubus that are mass media reports.

Interviews proved to be very effective in demonstrating the views of the public. It is considered that 'the interrogative and personal communicative form of interviews can seem to elevate their truth status over and above other forms of communication' (Craig, 2010:76), illustrating a more up close and in depth sample of opinion when proceeding with this research strategy. First of all, I asked what the first thing that the participants thought when they saw The Sun's headline on Jihad sympathisers. They all answered in a shocked manner, bewildered by the supposed 'fact' which is in front of them. One participant claimed that they felt it showed an 'increase in terror within the UK', which demonstrates the scare mongering tactics in effect. When asked whether they feel it accurately represents British Muslims, none of them seemed to feel this way, claiming that 'they definitely haven't personally spoken to every Muslim in the UK', yet another suggested 'they must have got their facts from somewhere'. Interestingly, The Times made a public apology on this article as their poll only asked about their sympathy for young Muslims going to Syria. They claimed that it was 'misleading' and furthermore 'did not distinguish between those who go to fight for Islamic State and those who join other factions in Syria'. Whilst the paper made no attempt to publicise this error, the aims of manipulating public opinion were met with little recoil.

My research also brought me to understand the effects on the representations of political parties and public sector figures. This was illustrated through asking whether the headline would make them feel safer in response to the hyper local headline on police fitness. They all agreed with the question, and coincidentally possessed the same opinions on the abundance of unfit police officers in local communities. As a result of this, the results raise a few questions on whether the headline was created to give the local authorities a more positive appearance to local readers. Furthermore, the political influence of newspapers is used universally in order to convey a negative outlook for the papers opposition. The data illuminates this when asking the participants how the final headline made them think about the Labour party. This was perhaps one of the more interesting results where interviewees claimed that Labour seemed `weak' from this headline, and 'inadequate', also that they seemingly 'don't have enough power'. Although the interviewees demonstrated open-minded views, they took an opposing view of the Labour party from the headline, illustrating that political influence is amongst the strongest from newspapers.

To reinforce the data which I found in the interviews, I conducted an anonymous online survey of which 25 people contributed. The questions asked the newspapers that the participants read and pondered the opinions of a specific headline from Daily Express which socially marginalizes foreign residents. My first question asked which newspaper the participants read the most, of which 36% replied with The Guardian, 24% claimed to read none and 20% read the infamous Daily Mail. Although this does not give us much information of the participants' opinion, it shows that there may be two contrasting dominant views (The Guardian tends to vouch for the left, whilst Daily Mail generally takes a Conservative stance). They were then asked whether they felt that news stories had an influence on their political beliefs, from which 48% answered yes; with 36% claiming that they were sometimes influenced by news stories. Following similar interview answers, claiming that they would see Labour as 'weak' after reading the Daily Mail, it is evident that the public can be manipulated by the of large newspaper companies. This view can leave people vulnerable to manipulation if they read newspapers with contrasting beliefs.

Moreover, the survey asked the participants about questions regarding specific groups of people in relation to the headline 'Immigrants Bring More Crime' from Daily Express. This part of the survey began with asking whether the participants felt that headlines accurately represent the truth of a story to which 56% claimed that they sometimes were. A mere 12% said that they do accurately represent a story which left 32% declaring distrust towards reporting standards of newspapers. This statistic aligned with my interview question on the representation of British Muslims, in which the interviewees strongly disagreed with the headline. With only 12% agreeing with the 'facts' expressed in newspapers, this shows a relatively large opposition to dominant news ideologies. Following the headline, I asked participants whether they saw immigration as a problem after seeing the Daily Express's reporting. The majority (68%) claimed that immigration did seem like a problem as a result of this headline illustrating the social influence that these papers can give on the public. Although people may have ordinary, open minded views, these fields of data demonstrate a distortion in public opinion which can be manipulated by a news outlet.

Critical Discourse Analysis

Fundamentally, articles aim to convey a stylistic expression of writing in order to appeal to the reader on a personal level. Whilst newspapers such as The New York Times aim to do this through more intellectual driven language and content; there are many mass media writers who target a broader market with simplifyed writing styles, shorter structures and sensationalised headlines to cause confusion. The lexical choices used in news, ‘have consequences for the ways news consumers come to view a certain set of historical conditions’ (Lukin, 2013:98) which can lead to predudices and, moreso recently, islamophobia. The headline used in the interview from The Sun, ‘One In Five Muslims’ Sympathy for Jihadis’ demonstrates this theory in effect by using false statistics to semantically group ‘Muslims’ with ‘Jihadis’. By manufacturing this headline throughout the country, the newspaper was spreading this message about Islam to incite hate following a terrorism attack on Paris.

On the other hand, we should take into account the active tendencies of audiences which has been shown in the interviews conducted. It would be ignorant to assume that this language has an effect on all readers, yet the article from Daily Express used in the survey displays a blunt and spiteful message. Using the idea that immigrants bring more crime to communities and stating it in a factual delivery can be very hurtful to the younger generation or easily impressionable. Furthermore, the content of the article reflects these opinions in an aesthetic procedure to make the ideas seem relevant to the readers life. It claims ‘facts’ such as ‘foreigners are responsible for one in five murders’ and ‘a foreign national is arrested for a suspected crime every four minutes’ in a formal, directive delivery to demonstrate an urgency to the situation with little proof of legitimacy. The aesthetic drive for this is claiming that it has had a ‘devastating sign’ on ‘our towns and communities’ (Daily Express, 2008) making the subject seem relevant to the reader and vividly localised.

It is typical of papers to choose their reporting topics based on their political perspective. More so in hyper local outlets, they tend to cover topics based on the constituency in the area and the interests of the local voters. Driffield Posts’ frequent stories on Conservatives often demonstrate this, such as the headline ‘Young Conservative Launches New Group’. This targets younger readers and creates a semantic field of revolutionary sorts using ‘young’ and ‘new’ alongside ‘Conservative’. Some may argue that this is an ineffective form of manipulation and ‘research has documented public apathy toward community level politics’ (Scheufele et al, 2003:428) yet the practice is still used in most newspapers. This can also be done in an oppositional way, such as the headline ‘Prime Minister Corbyn…and the 1000 Days Which Destroyed Britain’ from Daily Mail. Effectively, they demean the Labour party through creating a fictional dystopia using aesthetically driven lexical choices.

Conclusion

To conclude, the feedback demonstrated the range of opinions held by the public which gives us an understanding on the activity from some audiences. Many demonstrated disbelief and skepticism towards the claims made by the newspapers, whilst it was only a small minority who believed it was the concrete truth. Although the interviewees both displayed a slightly different perspective on the headlines, neither seemed manipulated or strongly persuaded by the examples.

Whilst there is room for improvement, my research effectively showed the correlation between hyperbolic headlines and reader reception. The shorter structure of the interviews resulted in useful feedback as longer interviews are often ‘evaluated more negatively’ (Stocke & Langfeldt, 1983:9) leading to less progressive responses. Moreover, I feel the slight lack of precision in the survey answers is a result of the amount of surveys given and could have perhaps been more informative with 50 participants. In using research based on an online survey, there was a slight error margin due to the likelihood of untruthful answers and participants from the same demographic. This is one of the key areas which I will be considering for my next report.

Closely studying lexical and semantic choice in journalism proved useful to assess the manner in which manipulative strategies are delivered. It showed that the use of language can widely spread a negative opinion on a religious group, political party or societal change whilst influencing the writers views passively. Ultimately, we can understand that newspaper companies can use their power to manipulate opinion through eye-catching headlines and shocking, ill-informed statistics. We can prevent this unethical indoctrination however, by using our power as citizens/parents/friends to address the manipulative views which are abundant throughout news reporting.

for Birmingham City University, 2014

Appendices

Interview #1:

“What is the first thing you think when you see this headline? “ [Shows ‘One In Five Muslims’ Sympathy for Jihadis’ headline]

-It makes me feel like the terror problem in the UK is getting a lot worse, it’s quite a shocking one

“Do you feel it accurately represents British Muslims?”

-No I don’t, although they must have got their facts from somewhere I don’t think that there’s enough Muslims in the u.k who agree with terrorism. At least not that many anyway.

“Would Seeing This Headline In the Local Newspaper Make You Feel Safer?” [Shows ‘Police Amongst Fittest in UK’ headline]

-I suppose it would, maybe they would get to you faster as most police are renowned for being slow [laughing].

“How does this headline make you feel about the Labour party?” [Shows ‘Ed Miliband Will Bring Back Uncontrolled Migration’ headline]

- I think that it makes the labour party look weak and incapable of making firm decisions. I suppose Labour have a different view on the immigration crisis to other newspapers

Interview #2:

“What is the first thing you think when you see this headline? “ [Shows ‘One In Five Muslims’ Sympathy for Jihadis’ headline]

-I would think that this statistic is false. It just seems like an unbelievable claim from a newspaper trying to make people racist.

“Do you feel it accurately represents British Muslims?”

-No I don’t think so. I haven’t heard or met any British Muslim who agrees with with Jihadi. They can’t just claim that statistic and put this as a headline when they definitely haven’t personally spoken to every Muslim in the UK.

“Would Seeing This Headline In the Local Newspaper Make You Feel Safer?” [Shows ‘Police Amongst Fittest in UK’ headline]

-A little I guess. Because the only police I see nowadays are old and clearly unfit and wouldn’t be good with foot chases. But that’s the only reason.

“How does this headline make you feel about the Labour party?” [Shows ‘Ed Miliband Will Bring Back Uncontrolled Migration’ headline]

- I think it makes the Labour party look inadequate and like they don't have enough power if they are unable to control the amount of migration coming into the UK.

Survey

Which newspaper (physical and online) do you normally read?

The Guardian - 9

The Independent - 2

The Times - 2

The Sun - 1

Daily Mail - 5

None - 6

Are your political views influenced from news stories?

Yes - 12

No - 4

Sometimes - 9

Do you feel headlines accurately represent the truth of a story?

Yes - 3

No - 8

Sometimes - 14

Read the headline 'Immigrants Bring More Crime', does this make you think immigration is a problem?

Yes - 17

No - 7

Unsure - 1

Bibliography

Baron, D. “Persistent Media Bias” Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 90, No. 1 (2006) pp. 1 - 36

Chomsky, N. “Thought Control in Democratic Society” {London, Pluto: 1999)

Craig, G. "Dialogue and Dissemination in News Interviews" (SAGE: 2010)

Fry, S. "Paperweight" (Arrow, London: 2004)

Goode, E. & Ben-Yehuda, N. “Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance” 2nd ed. (Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell: 2009)

Greenslade, R. "The Times Admit Story on The Sun's Jihadi Poll Was 'Misleading'" (The Guardian, Online) [http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/nov/26/the-times-admits-story-on-the-suns-jihadi-poll-was-misleading]

Lukin, A. “Journalism, Ideology and Linguistics: The Paradox of Chomsky’s Linguistic Legacy and his ‘Propaganda Model” Journalism, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2013)

Scheufele, D.A, Shanahan, J. & Kim, S. “Who Cares About Local Politics? Media Influences on Local Political Involvement, Issue Awareness and Attitude Strength” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 2 (2002) pp. 427 - 444

Schudson, M. "Question Authority: A History of the News Interview in American Journalism 1860s - 1930s" Media, Culture & Society (SAGE: 2010)

Stocke, V. & Langfeldt, B. "Effects of Survey Experience on Respondents Attitudes Towards Surveys" Bulletin of Sociological Methodology (SAGE:2004) pp. 9

Tiono, N.I. “An Analysis On Syntactic and Semantic Factors Found In Newspaper Headlines”, K@TA: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Language and Literature, vol.5, no.1 (Online, 2003) [http://puslit2.petra.ac.id/ejournal/index.php/ing/article/view/15497/15489]

Daily Express, ‘Immigrants Bring More Crime’ (2008)

[http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/41589/Immigrants-bring-more-crime]

Daily Mail, ‘Miliband Will Bring Back Uncontrolled Migration’ (2015)

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3053043/Miliband-bring-uncontrolled-migration-Mail-urges-speak-PM-s-stark-warning.html]

Daily Mail, ‘Prime Minister Corbyn…and the 1000 Days That Destroyed Britain’ (2015)

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3207363/Prime-Minister-Corbyn-1-000-days-destroyed-Britain-brilliant-imagining-Corbyn-premiership-reveals-Tories-gloat-Labour-s-woe-careful-wish-for.html]

The Sun, ‘One in Five Muslims’ Sympathy for Jihadi’s’ (2015)

[http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6758207/1-in-5-British-Muslims-have-sympathy-for-jihadis-in-poll.html]

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thesunnevershines · 4 years

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Good news! I got my first rejection...

I thought it was a good idea to take one of the most compelling extracts of my novel and remold it into a short story that I could send in to a few magazines.

I started with The Masters Review and since I don’t have the patience to wait for months, I paid for fast feedback. I also added the option to get a detailed critique instead of just the simple accepted or rejected note. This turned out to be a well-worth investment and it is why the title of this post is Good news!

The Masters Review, like many other magazines, uses www.submittable.com, which makes it so much easier to keep track of multiple submissions and results. No more checking your inbox and spam every day to see if you got a reply.

First of all, here is my cover letter that I pretty much copied from an article about how to make the perfect cover letter.

Dear Editor, Thank you for considering my work. I am an emerging writer with only a small scattering of published pieces. I appreciate all the time and attention my work receives. I look forward to hearing from you. This extract from my novel in progress is a simultaneous submission. I will withdraw the piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. I am a business entrepreneur from Norway, living in Greece since 2006. My work has been published twice in Kingston College’s Best of International Creative Writing Summer School anthology. It is a course I have participated four times to help me learn the craft. Sincerely, Anders Wennesland

Anyway, my short story was rejected, but the feedback was encouraging and it lead me to an idea of a revision that might turn out much stronger. I also got a statement that I can use in my cover letter to other magazines and publishers. In addition, they actually recommended me to send in to a few specific magazines that further helps me get noticed.

This is how the rejection letter begins and if I had not paid extra for the extensive critique, it would have been the only information I would have to go on.

From: The Masters ReviewTo: Anders WenneslandSubject: RE: [The Masters Review] The Sun Never Shines.Dear Anders, Thank you for the opportunity to consider "The Sun Never Shines." for New Voices. We are grateful you thought of us and we appreciate your participation in our Fast Response Option. Thank you also for requesting an editorial letter for your piece, “The Sun Never Shines.” Submitting this piece for critique allows me (and other editors on staff) to spend more time with individual submissions and really dig into what is working well and where some opportunities for revision lie.

I’m afraid I’m going to pass on this story for publication, but I’m more than happy to provide some feedback on this piece, as I think it is situated at a really nice place for revision and near to your final vision. Keep in mind the following is only the opinion of one editor, and these things are highly subjective. With that said, I’ll try to offer comments that I think might help you improve this piece and ready it for publication.

So instead, I get this full review of my short story which represents a micro-cosmos of the full length novel. It gives me the confidence that all or most elements, including my rather experimental duet structure, are working and that the story itself is intriguing.

At the very outset, “The Sun Never Shines,” posits a kind of mystery. Jessica, the narrator’s partner (wife? girlfriend? Just a line of context could be nice if this is to be read standalone), is going to be murdered at some point, and it is that tension that energizes the entirety of the excerpt. The looming threat of violence, coupled with the narrator’s recollections of his first violent encounters, creates a wonderful tension, and we as readers are left wondering when the axe will fall.

It is a deft choice to not reveal Jessica’s death in this piece. To do so would be perhaps too overt, and by withholding it from the reader you allow the flywheel of the mind to turn, contextualizing the story and leaving the end of the piece with an effective ambiguity. Is it the Albanian who kills Jessica? Does she drown swimming while drunk? Is the narrator the killer after rough sex gone wrong?

By guarding these details you allow your audience to have to sit in a sort of between space where any and none of the possibilities are true. All of it comes together to help your tone tell the story. There is evidence seemingly everywhere: mysterious drinks, darkness, an unknown character. It all comes together to make something very tense. In revision, experiment with ways that can help increase the tone through simple description of setting. You are doing this well with things like the tray of drinks, but how can you enhance descriptions of say, the dark ocean or the narrow city streets so that they too become as menacing as the other story actors.

To this point I haven’t brought up the italicized sections yet, those where we dip back into the narrator's past for his recollections of violence (mainly things like pub brawls). Their inclusion in the story leads me to believe that they are somehow linked to the in scene sections, but as of this draft I am not quite seeing how they inform one another. If I had to guess, I would think that they might be there to set up the narrator as a possible suspect, and that the violence demonstrated in these sections points to his potential for violence in the present moment. However, in these sections the narrator is often the victim of violence, not its perpetrator, and they all seem to have relatively low stakes, which is the opposite tone we get from the prose throughout the rest of the narrative. I think you can earn these sections more if you enhance the stakes within them.

What happens if our view of the narrator drastically changes as the recollections go on? They could move from fairly innocent to more insidious, and not only would this increase the tension, but also make your main character more ambiguous, which is exactly what you want in a story where mystery and suspicion is key. It would, in a way, make him unreliable. How do we know what he tells us is the objective truth, and not just perception through a warped lens? Finding more linkages between these sections apart from the violence is what will really create conversation between them, but as of now it serves as context that isn’t really clicking given the excerpted form.

One of the things that tends to slow prose down is the use of passive voice. Passive voice is the sentence level decision to use forms of the verb “to be” (is, are, was, am) in place of using more active verbiage. I’ll provide some more examples from the text. On page 1 we have the line, “Her elbow is leaning against the white paper tablecloth.” By using passive voice here the prose is slowed down, becomes leaden. However, if you rely on more active verbs, the sentence gains energy, like so, “Her elbow leans against the white paper tablecloth.” In terms of one sentence, this is a small change, but accumulated over the course of an entire piece you can really start to conserve narrative energy and funnel it into other places like theme and character. Another example from the same paragraph is, “There is this young Albanian man standing next to her,” which could easily be rewritten as, “A young Albanian man stands next to her.” By using active voice where applicable (you will, of course, always need to use some passive voice for grammar) you can hook readers by making the storytelling “faster.” Conserving space in an already contracted form like a short story is paramount in ensuring that you always arrive at the right level of prosody. Something to look out for as you revise.

This piece has a very well-developed tone and suspense, and I have confidence that it will find a home. After revision, you might consider submitting to the following journals: The Gravity of the Thing, Pithead Chapel, The Hunger, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. All are great venues and I could see this piece finding a home in any one of them.

Again, thank you so much for your submission. I hope these comments help you understand your writing for the better.

It was a pleasure reading your story, and I hope you keep submitting! Best, Benjamin Kessler

So now I have a name and a recommendation quote to refer to in my next cover letter. Not bad. I also got some very important feedback in terms of readers experience, especially for the back-story parts of the duet structure. It made me realize that I could actually add another part of the story here instead, which I will do in my revision and post soon.

My goal now, is to get one acceptance in pretty much any literary magazines, so that I can use this as a reference when submitting the entire novel to agents or publishers.

#fictionreview #rejections #literary magazine #themastersreview #submissions #shortstory #novel #fiction

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ramialkarmi · 6 years

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The Onion is on a crusade against Mark Zuckerberg because it says Facebook is choking its traffic (FB)

Satirical news site The Onion is ruthlessly roasting Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Over the last two days its published around a dozen articles, taking aim at everything from tech addiction to the 34-year-old CEO's baby daughter.

The Onion's editor-in-chief told Business Insider the attack is because of how Facebook has "betrayed the trust of billions of people" and is cutting off publishers' web traffic.

The Onion is in the business of making jokes about pretty much anything in the news. But this week, the satirical news site appears to have trained its fire on one particular target: Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Over the last two days, the satirical American news site has published around a dozen articles ridiculing the social network and its founder, and it says there's more on the way.

Why? The Onion's editor-in-chief Chad Nackers told Business Insider that the comedy onslaught is because Zuckerberg has "repeatedly betrayed the trust of billions of people," and because Facebook is choking off traffic to The Onion's website.

"We have 6,572,949 followers on Facebook who receive an ever-decreasing amount of the content we publish on the network," Nackers said, calling Facebook an "unwanted interloper" between the publisher and its audience.

In other words, The Onion is on a mission.

A multi-day lampooning

One of the first in the barrage on Thursday poked fun of the 34-year-old CEO: Mark Zuckerberg Insists Anyone With Same Skewed Values And Unrelenting Thirst For Power Could Have Made Same Mistakes.

The Onion's parody news article quoted a would-be Zuckergerg:

"'I know I screwed up, and I understand why you’re all upset, but if you were a morally corrupt megalomaniac hell-bent on manipulating society to your twisted whims, you would have done the exact same thing,' said Zuckerberg, suggesting that people should put themselves in the shoes of a self-absorbed asshole with a warped perception of humanity who justified the exploitation of personal connections as a means of amassing unfettered influence and profits to truly comprehend why he made every completely fucked-up decision."

Another Onion article skewered Facebook's arguably cringey "Here Together" campaign: Facebook Users Ashamed Of Criticizing Company After Seeing Heartwarming ‘Here Together’ Ad Campaign.

After that came a flurry of more jabs at the Facebook CEO.

Creepy Weirdo Still Stalking You On Facebook https://t.co/uX7KtS1q93 pic.twitter.com/l5W2fzoD30

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 14, 2018

"I was a high-level employee at Facebook for five years, and during that time, I was responsible for burying thousands of news reports about Mark Zuckerberg’s human zoo." https://t.co/Ksgv7iPoAJ pic.twitter.com/lbKZZLiN8P

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 14, 2018

A particularly dark op-ed pretended to be Mark Zuckerberg's baby daughter, telling him: "Daddy, I Don’t Want To Live In The World Your Website Has Created."

Facebook has been a semi-frequent target of The Onion and its sister sites like Clickhole in the past — but never so frequently.

The Onion's criticism of Facebook could be about two different things:

So what's The Onion playing at? Nackers was highly critical of Facebook in his statement, calling it "an unwanted interloper between The Onion and our audience. He cited how the publication's Facebook fans "receive an ever-decreasing amount of the content we publish on the network" — That's most likely a reference to Facebook's News Feed, which only shows a publisher's posts to a certain number of that publisher's followers. Companies can pay Facebook to "promote" their posts so that they reach a larger number of their followers.

But it's possible that The Onion is also complaining about recent changes to Facebook's algorithm, which have deprioritized news articles in favor of other types of Facebook posts. And given that The Onion's satirical articles are in a sense a form of "fake news," the company's content may be getting penalized more severely than that of other publishers.

"We are strong proponents of the First Amendment, and the fuel of a functioning democracy is the free flow of information. Facebook, the world's largest sieve of personal data, has become an unwanted interloper between The Onion and our audience," the editor said said.

"We have 6,572,949 followers on Facebook who receive an ever-decreasing amount of the content we publish on the network. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly betrayed the trust of billions of people. What you’ve seen over the last 48 hours is only the tip of the iceberg."

The Onion's anti-Facebook crusade is also branching out into multi-media. On Twitter it shared audio that purports to be Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues making fun of a teenager's coming-out message on the social network.

Leaked Audio: Mark Zuckerberg And Facebook Employees Make Fun Of Teenager’s Private Coming Out Message pic.twitter.com/5r3mwRaD9I

— The Onion (@TheOnion) June 15, 2018

And it shared a video too: 6-Year-Old Explains How Messed Up It Is That Her Entire Life Has Been Put On Facebook.

Facebook, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not respond to a request for comment.

Here's the complete list:

Leaked Audio: Mark Zuckerberg And Facebook Employees Make Fun Of Teenager’s Private Coming Out Message

‘We Must Protect The Pure Aryan Bloodline,’ Says Child After 9 Minutes Of Unsupervised Facebook Access

$30 Million Donation From Chan-Zuckerberg Charity To Help Kids Learn To Read Returned

‘You’re Deleting Your Account? We’ll Be Sad To See You Go,’ Says Facebook Prompt Showing User Photo Of Own Dead Body

Daddy, I Don’t Want To Live In The World Your Website Has Created

Mark Zuckerberg Defends Decision To Fly Confederate Flag At Facebook Headquarters

6-Year-Old Explains How Messed Up It Is That Her Entire Life Has Been Put On Facebook

Creepy Weirdo Still Stalking You On Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg Recalls Coming Up With Idea For Facebook After Seeing Dopamine-Addicted Lab Rat Starve To Death

As A Facebook Employee, I Was Ordered To Bury Thousands Of Stories About Mark Zuckerberg’s Human Zoo

Facebook Users Ashamed Of Criticizing Company After Seeing Heartwarming ‘Here Together’ Ad Campaign

Mark Zuckerberg Insists Anyone With Same Skewed Values And Unrelenting Thirst For Power Could Have Made Same Mistakes

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